Niirada Branch, Oku High School, under the Leprosy Prevention Law : the Film ‘Listen to the Bell Ringing’

After a struggle against revising the Leprosy Prevention Law（らい予防 法）of 1953, a high school for young patients was founded at Aiseien Sanatorium, Nagashima Island, Setouchi City, Okayama Prefecture in September, 1955. The school was named Niirada Branch, Oku High School（邑久高校 新良田教室）. It was officially managed by the Okayama educational authorities, staffed by the local teachers, and financially supported by the Japanese Government. Students from all over Japan entered the school, boarding at Aiseien, and attending classes four periods a day for four years. Each class had up to 30 students, with enrollment steadily declining. The high school branch closed in March, 1987, with a total of 307 graduates over 32 years. Now there remains a school monument at the site. Because the Leprosy Prevention Law regarded Hansen’s disease patients as the source of a ‘terrible infectious disease’, sanatorium authorities disinfected the patients’ body and personal effects on their arrival at the lonesome island colony. The law enforced its isolation policy not only by sending them to the remote sanatorium but also by discriminating against them within the premises, dividing the patient quarter from the non-patient quarter. The high school classrooms were in the patient quarter. Most school teachers actually had a strong prejudice and discriminated against the patient students. Being afraid of Hansen’s disease infection, the teachers wore ‘prevention gowns’ to go to the classrooms. They taught their subjects always on the platform without coming down to the student level. There was clearly physical and psychological distance between teachers and students. On the other hand, the patient students were not allowed to enter the teachers’ room in the non-patient quarter. In order to meet an individual teacher, a student had to ring the bell at the entrance several times like Morse code. Then the teacher came out of their room to converse with the student. This was thought to be a form of prejudice and discrimination against such students. Thus they asked the head teacher to change the system. There were several debates between both camps. The bell system was eventually abandoned in 1973 so that the students could enter the teachers’ space for consultation. Based on the above story, a movie entitled ‘Listen to the Bell Ringing’ （「ベルの音が聞こえる」）was made by a group of Okayama citizens under the direction of YAMAMOTO Mamoru（山本守）. They were all amateur actors who either auditioned or volunteered. After over a year of filming, they completed the production, and began showing the movie in Setouchi City in the winter of 2020. The film is now expected to be shown at several leprosy sanatoria and educational institutions all over Japan so as to enlighten the people about the basic human rights regarding prejudice and discrimination against the Hansen’s disease patients and their families.

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